This invention generally relates to baby bottle liners, baby bottles, and a baby bottle having a reclosable plastic liner with properties that permit the liner to be reused.
Nursing pouches and disposable baby bottle liners provide a convenient way for nursing, working mothers to provide nourishment and sustenance for newborns and growing babies. Various studies have shown that there are benefits that accrue from breast feeding babies, and should breast feeding be contraindicated, from feeding children appropriate quantities of nutritious liquids and dietary supplements. However, there are various problems associated with the current technology.
Working mothers need a convenient way to store breast milk and then feed their children at appropriate times. Current baby bottle liners do not provide a way to safely store breast milk while minimizing the risk of external contamination of the milk, and internal bacterial growth. One such exemplary prior art baby bottle and liner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,251 (“'251 patent”). The '251 patent describes a baby bottle liner that provides a reclosable feature at one end of the liner. A serious drawback of this prior art patent involves the risk of contamination of the contents of the liner at the ends of the reclosable fastener and through the fastener itself. The liner of the '251 patent permits contamination by microbes through the sides of the fastener which are open to the environment. Further, the fastener itself permits air and water to enter the inside of the liner and contaminate the contents thereof. Consequently, a nursing mother may be feeding her child breast milk that may be contaminated with microbes which could cause serious gastrointestinal problems for the child.
Further, the prior art does not solve the problem of how to place an airtight and watertight reclosable string fastener on a liner that is of a size of most liners for baby bottles. Conventional baby bottle liners are generally narrow in width. Hence, placement and sealing of a reclosable fastener onto a liner of narrow width is also a serious problem.
Similarly, U.S. Design Pat. No. 315,601, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,204,855, 3,672,122, 3,790,017, 3,822,806, 4,238,040, 4,339,046, 4,466,547, 4,501,585, 4,600,104, and 4,896,912 are designed for one time use, yet have a number of serious drawbacks. If the child does not consume the entire quantity of milk held in the liner, the milk must be transferred to another container for storage thereof since the liners were not created to store the unused portion of the milk in a substantially sterile condition. Another drawback of these prior art patents includes that lack of the ability to reuse the liner holder for another beverage. The contents of the liner that are initially held in the liner must be emptied, and the liner disposed of if the holder is to be reused.
Hence, there exists a need to solve the problems in the art that are articulated above.